Home vs venue wedding?

Some questions to keep in mind when you have a backyard wedding: is there ample parking? Will you need to rent bathroom trailers? Will you need a generator for the DJ or caterer? How much does it cost to rent tents, tables, chairs and linens in the area? If the weather is bad, like bad enough where the tents won’t help, can you comfortably fit all of the guests inside the house? Are there any noise ordinances in the town and if so what are they?

We initially ran the costs on this because it would have been really cool to get married on our property, but rentals alone (bathroom, tents, tables and chairs) put us way over our venue rental fee and we couldn’t have fit our guests comfortably in our home in case of bad weather.

View Quoted Comment Very valid points that I have already considered. The house has 3 bathrooms, and I've read to calculate 1 bathroom for every 25 guests, so I think we're good there with max 75 on our guest list. The house is over 2000sqft interior with an open floorplan kitchen and living, screened in porch, and wrap around deck, which I think should be large enough if we're forced inside. There's a long driveway, and it's out in the country with not many other houses so I don't think parking would be an issue.

I'll have to check on noise ordinances, rentals, and generators. Thanks for the reminder!

I would go with the venue. There are so many hidden issues with home weddings. It will end up costing you and your dad more than you realize. The venue will be easy, it leaves your dad’s home available to host guests, and will make your planning much less stressful. If dad wants to host something, consider having your RD there or maybe a day after brunch.

View Quoted Comment So I can tell you that my house is just shy of 2500sq ft of living space with an open concept and there’s no way 75 people would comfortably fit in my house on the first floor. We’ve had roughly 35-40 people for Christmas and Thanksgiving the last few years and that has been probably the max our house could hold for hosting. Also keep in mind where the bathrooms are located in the house. We have 3 bathrooms also but one is in our master suite and I would not be comfortable with people being in and out of our bedroom throughout a party.

If the location is meaningful to you I'd try to make it work but there definitely can be hidden costs such as renting all the furniture needed.

Personally I would go with the venue, especially since you are living in another country right now, an included coordinator at the venue would save you a lot of time (and money for a planner or day of coordinator)! You could always do the rehearsal dinner at the house, if it is near the venue!

I had my wedding at my grandparents farm, and I wouldn't have wanted to have it anywhere else.

Of course there is a lot to think about when having a wedding at a residence, but I think it's worth it.

I had to rent a lot of stuff, including: Tent for the reception, chairs for reception, chairs for ceremony, tables, dance floor, speaker system, tablecloths, porta potties.

I did end up hiring a day of coordinator, and that helped a ton in making sure everything went according to plan.

PM me if you have any other questions

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I imagine that $5,500 and possibly more will go towards bathroom rentals, generator rentals, lights, tables, tents, chairs, etc. and all the things houses don't have that weddings require. I assume the wedding will be extremely casual if people can camp the day before? Where would they shower or get ready? Would neighbors have a problem or city/county ordinances?

If you are having alcohol at the wedding and someone where to leave and got into an accident your dad would be held liable for it too btw

So I have being to home weddings and help plan some of it. You need to consider parking for everyone for once. Keep in mind bathroom near by so renting portable bathroom is an option. Dance floor since is an outdoor wedding and most likely all grass. Rental of tables, chairs, lighting, electrical work and/or generator for lighting and DJ. You’ll also need to have a tent as a back up in case of rain. Full on catering which means renting a bar, staff to serve or buffet, plates, glass (drinks, champagne, wine) fork, knife, spoons, napkins. Is all possible since some caterings already provide this but the cost of the venue you’re saving you’ll end up spending at home if not more.
Pros are the endless time you have at the venue which means you can start decorating way in advance. You can do some trials to see how it would all work. I recommend taking time the week of to do decor and you can save cost by picking up the rentals yourself. Do the math what’s best if renting a truck for picking this up or paying the delivery fee. You can do an early set up like a day or two before or the general and leave the details for night before or early morning since is outdoor and you want to avoid getting dirty. Another recommendation if all the events would be done in grass make sure to mention to guest so they wear the appropriate shoes. Another great pro is every time you visit your dad it would bring great memories of your big day.

Don't forget a setup and cleanup crew if you decide to go with the home wedding or your family will be stuck doing it and be PISSED.

I spent 2 and a half years planning my backyard reception at our new home and 4 months out from the wedding, we went and booked a venue 10 minutes from our house. You will spend double the $5,500 venue fee to get the property ready for the wedding. If its simply a budget issue, go with the venue! But if budget is not an issue, the pros of a home wedding are endless. You will have complete control of before and after the wedding which was very attractive to me. Setting up the day before with no stressful time limits and tearing down whenever I dang felt like it sounded amazing. I also hear people say their wedding went by SO fast all of the time, which I understand when you have a strict end time to a reception. It can all of a sudden feel over. If you can pull it off, go for it! For me, the stress I would be putting on my fiance to get the yard ready by a specific date just didn't seem worth it. We are also on a tight budget considering we just built this new house with his life savings. I also kept telling myself we can have a fab backyard party anytime we want, but a resort wedding reception can only happen once. Good luck to you! I hope you are confident in your decision!

I know you said theirs 3 bathrooms in the house-are they all easily accessible for the guests to use or will people be traipsing through a master bedroom? Also does the property have a septic system or is it on public sewer? If it’s septic you may run in to issues with the system not being able to handle the volume of people using the toilets, just the number of toilets is not all you need to worry about.

If there will be alcohol you will want to purchase liquor liability insurance. Even if their isn’t alcohol your parents will want to speak to their home owners insurance company about adding additional liability coverage in case a guest gets hurt or there’s property damage. Most standard policy’s won’t cover an event like this.

Also, you’ll probably need a wedding planner and definitely need a DOC, especially since you live out of country and can’t actually do the foot work yourself. Regardless of if you were local or not a DOC will be a must have to make sure everything is set up, torn down, coordinating vendors, and generally running smoothly.

If i had the option, I would totally go with a home wedding. The idea of being able to have a fire sounds absolutely amazing and you likely wont be able to do that with a venue wedding since liability insurances usually prohibit open flames. Open space and the ability to set up before and likely to stay at the house the night before can really help cut down on your stress. You do have some added costs with chairs and potentially tents but on the whole, the idea of having a place for people to stay and the ability to set up long before hand are well worth the extra, especially when you are planning from abroad.

Extra things to think about though: are they going to be too far away for baker, catering, floral and other vendors? are you planning to do these things yourself or have them done? these are the things that could deter me from a back yard wedding.